


Pumpkin Swirls

by VoidofRoses



Series: Sunshine, Moonlight, Starlight [1]
Category: Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Moomintroll has two hands, Snorkmaiden has an inkling, Snufkin has a tail, but he’s a bi disaster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 12:04:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18571099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoidofRoses/pseuds/VoidofRoses
Summary: It hadn’t occurred to her until right this second that she had never actually...sat down with the vagabond and broken bread, so to speak. He was Moomintroll’s friend more than anyone else’s; though they all got along, she would often see him look away in thought, or only pay attention to her boyfriend.





	Pumpkin Swirls

**Author's Note:**

> my first Moomins fic! hope y’all enjoy :) I’m new so I’m still getting a feel for the character’s voices, so please feel free to tell me any criticisms you might have. I’m also only familiar with the 1990 anime so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Snorkmaiden had never quite talked to Snufkin on her own before. She was always with Little My or Sniff, or alone with Moomintroll. It hadn’t occurred to her until right this second that she had never actually...sat down with the vagabond and broken bread, so to speak. He was Moomintroll’s friend more than anyone else’s; though they all got along, she would often see him look away in thought, or only pay attention to her boyfriend.

She knew that he walked away at the first sight of snowfall and come back when the first flowers bloomed, sometimes a few days later after hibernation ended. She knew that he smoked a peculiar plant that she had never seen in Moominvalley before, but when asked by the Hemulen, he said it was something called “catnip” and offered him a sample. She knew that despite how distant he seemed emotionally, he cared for Moomintroll.

Snorkmaiden sucked in a deep breath and nudged the ground with her anklet-adorned paw, then approached his tent. He wasn’t off with Moomintroll wading around the beach’s edges (Little My had said Moominmamma held him back to do the dishes from breakfast this morning), and she hadn’t seen him at his usual fishing spot lazing on the bank of the river with his rod propped up in the crook of the rocks. Her tail swaying about behind her, the young girl cleared her throat and spoke.

“Snufkin? May I speak to you?”

There was a pause before he poked his head from around the tent, pipe dangling from his mouth. Snufkin blinked as though in surprise, picking the pipe between his fingers and removing it to speak, his tail sweeping along the ground behind him. “Well this is unprecedented. What is it, Snorkmaiden? Has something happened?”

She could feel her cheeks heating up in embarrassment under the warmth of the sun, pulling her tail around from behind her to toy with it as she stepped closer now that she knew where he was, but still maintaining her distance. “Snufkin...you...you go all around the world, don’t you? Or at least, far enough from Moominvalley.”

He leaned back and puffed at his pipe, free hand resting on the grass behind him. “Mmm you could say that. Why do you ask?”

Snorkmaiden could feel herself flushing terribly, her fingers splaying in the fluffy tuft at the end of her tail. “D-Do you think you could teach me one of the dances from somewhere where you’ve been?”

Snufkin’s next inhale of smoke was countered by a choking splutter, causing her to look alarmed as he patted his chest with his fist. Placing his pipe in the grass, he stood from his seat, coughing once more before responding. “What brought this up?”

“Well, the harvest festival is coming up and I wanted to learn something new to impress Moomintroll.” She could see the gears turning in his head, coming to the same conclusions she had earlier about their strained existence together as Moomintroll’s girlfriend and best friend. Snorkmaiden shrugged and nudged the grass with her paw again. “It’s okay if you don’t want to, I just thought you might...know some dances that Moominpappa doesn’t.”

“It’s true, I do know a few.” Snufkin placed one of his hands into the pocket of his raincoat, looking at her thoughtfully. “But in the south they tend to be a bit on the...romantic side. Which I’m assuming is what you want, right?” She nodded, daring to look hopeful. He rubbed his chin. “It’ll be difficult, but I suppose I could help you out.”

Snorkmaiden’s ears perked and wriggled in glee as he agreed to it, her tail swishing behind her eagerly. “Oh thank you, Snufkin, thank you!”

\---

Moomintroll ran down the rolling valley from Moominhouse, already hours late from cleaning the breakfast things and his room upon Mamma’s insistence. It was possible that the tide was in at the beach and would ruin his and Snufkin’s plans to look for rock crabs today, but any day spent with his best friend before his annual trip south was a good day, and the days were getting shorter and shorter.

His heart ached a little at the thought, as it did each year. His yearning for Snufkin upon his departure would almost seem like pining to some, but he knew that it just made the following spring even sweeter when he returned. His heart went ba da ba dump in his chest and he fought down the feelings swirling in his stomach. Though Snorkmaiden was his girlfriend, there was no doubt that his heart held a special place for Snufkin too, and it was getting more and more difficult to tell the two feelings apart.

He heard Snorkmaiden’s embarrassed giggles as he approached the bridge, his ears twitching atop his head as he heard them coupled with Snufkin’s deepening laughter, stopping dead in his tracks in the centre of the bridge itself. There, on the other bank, were Snufkin and Snorkmaiden. His best friend and girlfriend. While rare it was to see them together without him, even more shocking was the hands held together, the way Snorkmaiden was dipping Snufkin that had caused his hat to fall off his head, the twirl that broke them apart after.

Instead of feeling jealous like most teenage boys would have, Moomintroll’s face heated to a dark, beet red right to his ears, his heart beating faster in his chest.

“Oh, Moomintroll!”

He fainted.


End file.
